By contrast to ancient epics, which for modern tastes are strange and difficult to read, ancient tragedies seem easy.  That's because these very dramas set down the rules of plot, character, suspense, and expressive language that we still find in novels, movies, and even comics today.  Yet even if ancient tragedies strike us as "good stories," their actual events are as different from anyone's real life as speculative fiction or fantasy.  We will explore how these fascinating works might have been understood by their original audiences: as moral teaching?  As religious worship?  As contributions to a long tradition of mythology?  What irreducible literary kernel remains alive after we've accounted for those potential social functions?